(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, and more particularly, to an information processing system for normalizing an input character string and storing the resulting character string.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Data obtained as a result of the search of a database or the like, for example, is sorted according to predetermined rules before being output. Such rules differ from one OS (Operating System) or DBMS (Data Base Management System) to another, and accordingly, even in cases where search is performed using an identical database, the search results can vary depending upon the system used.
To remove such a system-dependent influence, the inventor hereof previously proposed a method in which original data is normalized, the normalized data and the original data are stored in a database in a manner associated with each other, search and sorting are performed with respect to the normalized data, and the results obtained are converted to the original data and output.
With this method, however, not only the original data but the normalized data need to be stored in the database, giving rise to a problem that the required capacity of the database increases.
An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing system which permits reduction of the required storage capacity of a database for storing normalized data.
To achieve the above object, there is provided an information processing system for normalizing an input character string and storing a resulting character string. The information processing system comprises normalizing means for generating a normalized character string by normalizing the input character string, restoration information generating means for generating restoration information for restoring the normalized character string obtained by the normalizing means to an original character string, storing means for storing the restoration information generated by the restoration information generating means and the normalized character string in a manner associated with each other, and restoring means, responsive to specification of a certain normalized character string stored in the storing means, for restoring an original character string by looking up the corresponding restoration information.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention by way of example.